'Persistent Questions' Led To President Obama Photo Release

WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) -- The White House says there's a simple reason they released the now-famous photo of President Obama shooting a gun.

People kept asking about it.

"There were persistent questions about this, so we decided to release a photo of the President shooting at Camp David," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.It wasn't just reporters; some of President Obama's Republican critics had questioned the president's statement that he had fired a weapon.

The issue surfaced with the Jan. 27 release of an interview in The New Republic, which asked President Obama if he had ever fire a gun.

"Yes, in fact, up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time," Obama said.

Said Carney: "The fact is the President was asked a question -- did not volunteer, but was asked a question -- about whether or not he had ever shot a weapon. He answered with the truth, which is that he has enjoyed shooting competitively with friends at Camp David on multiple occasions."

Carney added, "I think it's fair to say that we believed that would have been answer enough," but the repeated calls for proof suggested otherwise.